ALVA – Northwestern Oklahoma State Football and head coach Ronnie Jones announced today the hiring of Jerry Glanville as the new defensive coordinator of the Ranger football team.
Glanville comes to the Rangers with 57 years of coaching experience from a multitude of different areas including NCAA Division I, NFL, USFL, CFL, and XFL. Glanville worked in the NFL first in 1974 with the Lions before working with the Falcons, Bills, Oilers, and Falcons. He was the head coach with the Falcons and Oilers accumulating 60 wins along with three postseason victories.
Stated head coach Ronnie Jones, “When I accepted this job at Northwestern, I promised to do everything in my power to bring back the winning tradition of the Ranger Football program. Bringing coach Jerry Glanville is a major step in that direction. He brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to our program. He is considered one of the greatest defensive coaches to ever coach the game and I can’t wait to watch him turn our defense into a dominating unit.”
With the Falcons, Glanville led one of the best defenses in the league turning around the worst rush defense to first on rankings in one season. Glanville had two stints with the Falcons first in 19771982 where he was the defensive back coach before being promoted to the defensive coordinator. He later came back with the Falcons in 1990 as the head coach, staying through 1993.
Glanville turned around a defense that went from ranked last in the NFL in rush defense to first in one season while forcing 35 defensive takeaways. His cornerbacks led the NFL in interceptions and held opponents to under 200 yards passing in half their games. To go along with a top tier defense his Falcons offense set franchise records in points scored in a season.
Before being the head coach of the Falcons, Glanville was the head coach and defensive coordinator of the Houston Oilers. He coached the number one defense while he was with the Oilers holding quarterback to just 46% completion in the NFL. With the Oilers he coached in a total of five playoff games after a successful tenure. Along with one of the top defenses in the league he was second in the NFL in scoring, while the team led in time of possession, completion percentage and allowed the fourth fewest sacks in the NFL.
Prior to Glanville’s time with the Oilers he coached with the Buffalo Bills in 1983 as the secondary coach, and was the Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator from 1977-1982.
Glanville was at the NCAA Division I level of college football before heading to the NFL as he was the defensive ends and linebackers coach for Georgia Tech where he also coached in three postseason bowl games. Prior to his time at Georgia Tech he was the defensive coordinator for Western Kentucky where they had a top five defense in the country only losing one game. He has coached at the University of Hawaii (11-3), Portland State University, Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the CFL as the defensive coordinator, and then joined the XFL, USFL, and his most recent stint was with the Alabama Airborne, a team in Major League Football in 2022.
